ON DAB +

Calling time in Zug

Art & Culture
//By WRS//Jan. 26, 2017

Never let it be said that Swiss carpenters don’t know how to have a good time.

In Zug, February is the month they traditionally let their hair down and celebrate Greth Schell, marking the legend of local housewife Margarethe Schell. Apparently she finally called time on her husband and dragged him away from a town centre pub crawl – by stuffing him into a huge laundry basket. And yes, he was a carpenter. With a logic known only to themselves, members of the Zug Guild of Carpenters, Turners and Coopers celebrate this event by dressing up as jesters, or Lölis, wearing hats, masks and spotted capes, waving a balloon on a stick (replacing the traditional pigs’ bladder), and making mischief on the evening before Shrove Tuesday. This will be February 27 in 2017 and starts around 4pm. Later, the Greth Schell revellers can be seen in all the Old Town bars – proving that times haven’t changed too much! Meanwhile children love a carnival giveaway, dashing around the narrow streets to scoop up bread rolls, hot sausages and oranges handed out by cheerful Lölis.